1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of restraints for holding a person on an emergency vehicle bed or a child seat positionable atop a vehicle passenger seat.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A variety of harnesses are utilized to restrain patients on emergency gurneys and children atop vehicle seats. A constant problem is that the harness must be manually sized depending upon the shape and size of the patient or child. For example, in a five point harness assembly, the shoulder straps must be positioned to extend adjacent the person's shoulders and then tightened to limit movement of the person. A typical five point harness is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,158,337 which consists of a pair of lap belts, two opposite over-the-shoulder straps and a crouch strap which are connected together by a belt/tongue combination.
Typically, in a five point harness assembly, the pair of shoulder straps extend through slots in the back support and are removably connected to a t-bar or t-plate in turn connected to a third strap extending through a web adjuster operable to tighten or loosen the third strap and thus the shoulder straps. Such an approach is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,471,298 issued to Caring et al. In the Caring et al. device, a row of slots are located on the back support. The shoulder straps are removed from the t-bar and then manually threaded through the slots in order to size the straps to the person resting against the back support. The shoulder straps are then attached once again to the t-bar.
In order to avoid the necessity of unhooking the shoulder straps from the t-bar and then manually feeding the straps through the particular slots depending upon the size of the person, various approaches have been utilized to facilitate the sizing of the harness. For example, in the U.S. Pat. No. 6,898,811 issued to Zucker et al., an emergency transport used for pediatric patients is disclosed having the top ends of the shoulder straps with buckles mounted thereon that are engaged with tongues or anchors located at each slot along the row of slots provided on the back support. Thus, in order to size the harness, the buckles on each shoulder strap are manually positioned and locked to the particular anchors. In addition, belt buckles are provided along the length of the straps to manually adjust the length of the straps.
A further approach to sizing the harness is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,496,092 issued to Williams et al. In the Williams et al. device, a pair of shoulder straps extend through a pair of slots provided on a movable plate located on the front of the back support. The movable plate rides on rails and may be moved along the length of the back support thereby positioning the slots at the desired location so that the shoulder straps may extend against the patient's shoulders. The harness is then tightened by means of a third strap attached to the pair of straps with the third strap being fed through a web adjuster. Thus, in order to size the Williams et al. harness, one must place the patient beneath the shoulder straps and manually move the movable plate to the desired location and then pull on the third strap to tighten the harness.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,447,060, there is disclosed a back support having a pair of top slots and bottom slots interconnected by narrow channels. The shoulder straps may be manually moved from the top slots to the bottom slots and vice-versa by turning the straps on edge and moving the straps through the channels to the chosen slots.
Disclosed herein is a harness adjustment system that avoids the necessity of manually feeding the shoulder straps through different slots in the back support or for manually moving a plate having the slots thereon prior to tightening the harness. Likewise, the approach of manually mounting the top ends of the shoulder straps to particular locations along the length of the back support is avoided. The harness system disclosed herein provides automatic positioning of the shoulder straps as the harness is loosened or tightened. More specifically, by loosening the harness assembly, the shoulder straps automatically move apart from the person's shoulders and by tightening the harness straps, the shoulder straps move and are positioned adjacent the person's shoulders.
The harness system disclosed herein may be used in a variety of different applications including cots or mattresses positioned atop a gurney or other applications, such as, a child seat. The harness system is particularly advantageous in that the system can be incorporated into a gurney or may be an add on feature by incorporating the harness into a mattress or pad which is then subsequently mounted to a gurney.
Other samples of prior approaches include U.S. Pat. No. 5,845,351 which discloses a stretcher table mountable over an ambulance stretcher. A foldable trauma stretcher is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,283,919. A mattress having a three point restraint is provided on an ambulance gurney disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,400,448. A board for use in moving a small child having multiple slots for extending the shoulder straps through for sizing is mountable to a wheeled patient mover as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,977,630. A pediatric immobilization structure is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,014,724 having shoulder straps that extend over the patient. Further, a pediatric transport device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,860,176, has shoulder straps sized by adjustment of standard buckles.